International tourists to Vietnam down by 19.94 pct in June

HANOI, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is estimated to receive some 539,700 international visitors in June, down by 19.94 percent over the previous month and down 4.85 percent year-on-year, said Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) on Wednesday.

The administration attributed the decrease in the number of foreign tourists during the month to the fact that June is not a peak season of international visitors to Vietnam, said VNAT's website.

In mid-May, a series of riots hit foreign companies in southern and central Vietnam, leaving four Chinese nationals brutally killed, around 20 foreign factories burned down and some 1,100 foreign companies affected. Later on, China advised its nationals against traveling to Vietnam on May 17, China's Taiwan issued a " yellow" travel warning for Vietnam and China's Hong Kong issued a red warning against traveling to Vietnam.

However, Vietnam's tourism performs fairly well before mid-May and the first half year of 2014 generally. According to the administration, in the first six months of 2014, Vietnam is likely to welcome 4.287 million foreign tourists, up 21.11 percent year- on-year.

Among those, a total of 2.58 million international visitors came to Vietnam for holiday, resort, up 19.3 percent year-on-year.

During January-June period, the country is projected to welcome 23.4 million person-times of domestic tourists, up 6.9 percent year-on-year. The total revenue from tourism is expected to hit 125 trillion Vietnamese dong (5.92 billion U.S. dollars), up 22.5 percent year-on-year, according to VNAT.